Lent 2- For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16; Psalm 22:22-30; Romans 4:13-25; Mark 8:31-38
In Abraham’s time, gods were associated with geography and aspects of nature. So, you would have a sky god, an earth god, and a water god, a god of the moon, a god of the sun, a god of storms, a god of wisdom, and a god of the city of Babylon. … The gods weren’t associated with individuals. So, God calling Abraham and being associated with his family was a new concept. This God is the God of Abraham. God will be known as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God has attached Himself to this family.
Abraham was called out of the biggest and most advanced city in the world. God says,
“Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you” (Gen 12:1).
Abraham isn’t given the whole plan. He is asked to trust God. He is asked to have faith. He is asked to exchange the life he had for what God was promising to give him. God says,
“I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen 12:2-3).
… He and Sarah were too old to have children, but God says they were going to birth a great nation. They had no clue where they were being led, but God says they will be shown a land. … They were being asked to trust God to be true to His promise. But to follow God, they had to leave everything they knew. They had to lose the life they knew, to gain the life God was promising them.
Jesus says,
Jesus says,
“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it” (Mk 8:34-35).
The offer to Abraham is not dissimilar to the offer Jesus is making. Abraham can’t follow God and stay in the city of Ur. Jesus is telling us that that we can’t live in both worlds. We can’t live with a foot in the kingdom and a foot in the world that rejects him. To enter the Kingdom, we have to leave behind whatever is not of the kingdom. It is a kind of death to one kind of life, so that we can be alive to a different kind of life.
It can be a temptation to hold onto both. … Though, Jesus warns us that even if we gain the whole world, it is temporary. The most powerful emperor with the greatest army will die and someone else will take it. The richest CEO of the most influential company will leave it all behind when they die. We can spend our life pouring ourselves into worldly wealth, power, and pleasure, but it is all temporary. The way we focus our lives, how we spend our time, what thoughts fill our minds, all of this has an effect on who we become. Who we become is ultimately all we are left with, and one of the most important parts of who we become is where we place our trust. …
I’m a very different person if I’m not committed to Crystal, for example. If I am not faithful to my marriage vows, then I become a different person, in a way. That commitment is a big part of who I am. My commitment will determine how I direct my resources, and my time, and my attention. The way my character is being shaped is bound up in these things. … If my commitment is to Christ, then that will have an effect on how I direct my resources, and my attention, and my time. And all of that will shape my character. My character is an expression of where my life is aiming. If my life is aimed at God, then I’m oriented towards the highest good- the Source of love, and joy, and peace, and beauty. If my life is aimed at God, then I’m oriented towards to Source of all life. If my life is aimed at Jesus, then I will trust that God wants good for us and for the world.
Christ’s character is expressed by the cross. The way of the cross is the way of suffering love. … Christ was rejected by the elders, and chief priests, and scribes. They were committed to control and power, and they were unwilling to humble themselves. … The kingdom of Jesus is different, and his presence and unwillingness to compromise provoked a decision to either accept him or reject him. Their rejection of him led Jesus to the cross. In return for their cursing, Jesus would pour out blessing. In return for their hate, Jesus would pour out love. From their violence on the cross, God would create resurrection.
The kingdom of Jesus is different. … And the presence of Jesus will provoke a decision- for him or against him. To choose Jesus might also mean a cross. For the original disciples of Jesus, that sometimes meant a literal cross, as it did for Andrew and Peter. Tradition tells us that all but one of the original 12 apostles were martyred, John being exiled to an island. …
Even if a decision for Jesus doesn’t lead to martyrdom, it will mean suffering in the sense of the need to let go of the things that draw us away from God. When we shift the central part of who we are to line up with the Kingdom of God, our motivations change. In a way, we see the people in our life differently. We might still work the same job, but our motivation and the way we work changes. The way we see ourselves changes. When we enter the ways of the Kingdom it feels like the whole world is different because we see it in a different way, we act with different motivations, and the people we see are precious in a way we didn’t see before. We are no longer on the throne in our life- Our life is not about serving our pleasures- and there is a part of us that doesn’t like that. But we learn to deny ourselves so that we can have a new kind of life that is focused on Christ as sitting on the throne of our life.
Sometimes we see dramatic changes in people when they turn to Jesus and his kingdom. For example, we could look at John Newton, the author of the hymn “Amazing Grace” who had been a captain of slave ships and worked in the business of the slave trade. After experiencing a conversion to Christ, he became a strong supporter of abolitionism and became an Anglican priest.
Moses the Ethiopian lived in the 300’s and was a part of an infamous and violent gang in the Nile Valley. Moses was a huge guy and became the leader of this gang who terrorized the people who lived in the area. Once, when trying to hide from the authorities, he hid among some monks. Their way of life moved him so deeply that he converted and became a Christian. He was baptized and joined the monastic community. As a new monk, Moses was once attacked by a group of robbers when he was in his cell, but Moses overpowered the robbers. Since he was a Christin now, he didn’t think he should hurt them. He wasn’t sure what he should do with the robbers, so he dragged them to the chapel to ask the other monks. The robbers repented and joined the monastic community.
Sometimes this wasn’t about a dramatic conversion from a villain to a hero. Sometimes it was more subtle. The dedication to the ways of the Kingdom of Jesus might confront someone like Corrie ten Boom with the decision to either put her head down and try to survive the Nazi occupation, or to try to be a force for good and put her life at risk to hide Jewish people from the Nazis. That decision resulted in her, her father, and sister being arrested and taken to a concentration camp.
But this could be even more subtle. Allowing the false self to die might mean taking time to pray and study, when you could be entertaining yourself by watching TV. Maybe no one but God will see that decision. … It might mean practicing fasting, so that you learn that your desires are not your master, and so you learn to be kind to others when you don’t get what you want. … It might mean donating money to an organization that is doing good in the world, recognizing this is actually God’s money, rather than spending it on yourself. … Our false self will suffer as we allow our pride to die so that we can show reverence to God. Our false self will suffer when we let go of the habit of looking down on someone in judgement and anger and bitterness, so that we can instead see them as a bearer of the image of God- Someone Christ was willing to die for. …
There is a kind of suffering that goes along with these decisions. It is the suffering of the false self- which is being put to death whenever we choose to trust God. The false self will draw us into serving ourselves through gaining power over others, through excessive bodily pleasure, and the amassing of wealth and showing it off. The false self will tell you that you deserve it, and that holiness is elitist, and that the way of Jesus isn’t realistic. The false self will tell you that it isn’t worth it, and it’s probably all fairy tales anyway. … But in the end, there is a greater joy in the Kingdom of Jesus. It is a joy we get glimmers of here in this life, but the fruit will not be fully enjoyed here. Like Abraham, we are being asked to trust God for a land we haven’t seen yet. We are being aske to trust that the ways of the Kingdom will produce virtues in us that we haven’t seen yet. But travelling to the place God wants to show us, means leaving places where Jesus is not welcomed as king. AMEN
It can be a temptation to hold onto both. … Though, Jesus warns us that even if we gain the whole world, it is temporary. The most powerful emperor with the greatest army will die and someone else will take it. The richest CEO of the most influential company will leave it all behind when they die. We can spend our life pouring ourselves into worldly wealth, power, and pleasure, but it is all temporary. The way we focus our lives, how we spend our time, what thoughts fill our minds, all of this has an effect on who we become. Who we become is ultimately all we are left with, and one of the most important parts of who we become is where we place our trust. …
I’m a very different person if I’m not committed to Crystal, for example. If I am not faithful to my marriage vows, then I become a different person, in a way. That commitment is a big part of who I am. My commitment will determine how I direct my resources, and my time, and my attention. The way my character is being shaped is bound up in these things. … If my commitment is to Christ, then that will have an effect on how I direct my resources, and my attention, and my time. And all of that will shape my character. My character is an expression of where my life is aiming. If my life is aimed at God, then I’m oriented towards the highest good- the Source of love, and joy, and peace, and beauty. If my life is aimed at God, then I’m oriented towards to Source of all life. If my life is aimed at Jesus, then I will trust that God wants good for us and for the world.
Christ’s character is expressed by the cross. The way of the cross is the way of suffering love. … Christ was rejected by the elders, and chief priests, and scribes. They were committed to control and power, and they were unwilling to humble themselves. … The kingdom of Jesus is different, and his presence and unwillingness to compromise provoked a decision to either accept him or reject him. Their rejection of him led Jesus to the cross. In return for their cursing, Jesus would pour out blessing. In return for their hate, Jesus would pour out love. From their violence on the cross, God would create resurrection.
The kingdom of Jesus is different. … And the presence of Jesus will provoke a decision- for him or against him. To choose Jesus might also mean a cross. For the original disciples of Jesus, that sometimes meant a literal cross, as it did for Andrew and Peter. Tradition tells us that all but one of the original 12 apostles were martyred, John being exiled to an island. …
Even if a decision for Jesus doesn’t lead to martyrdom, it will mean suffering in the sense of the need to let go of the things that draw us away from God. When we shift the central part of who we are to line up with the Kingdom of God, our motivations change. In a way, we see the people in our life differently. We might still work the same job, but our motivation and the way we work changes. The way we see ourselves changes. When we enter the ways of the Kingdom it feels like the whole world is different because we see it in a different way, we act with different motivations, and the people we see are precious in a way we didn’t see before. We are no longer on the throne in our life- Our life is not about serving our pleasures- and there is a part of us that doesn’t like that. But we learn to deny ourselves so that we can have a new kind of life that is focused on Christ as sitting on the throne of our life.
Sometimes we see dramatic changes in people when they turn to Jesus and his kingdom. For example, we could look at John Newton, the author of the hymn “Amazing Grace” who had been a captain of slave ships and worked in the business of the slave trade. After experiencing a conversion to Christ, he became a strong supporter of abolitionism and became an Anglican priest.
Moses the Ethiopian lived in the 300’s and was a part of an infamous and violent gang in the Nile Valley. Moses was a huge guy and became the leader of this gang who terrorized the people who lived in the area. Once, when trying to hide from the authorities, he hid among some monks. Their way of life moved him so deeply that he converted and became a Christian. He was baptized and joined the monastic community. As a new monk, Moses was once attacked by a group of robbers when he was in his cell, but Moses overpowered the robbers. Since he was a Christin now, he didn’t think he should hurt them. He wasn’t sure what he should do with the robbers, so he dragged them to the chapel to ask the other monks. The robbers repented and joined the monastic community.
Sometimes this wasn’t about a dramatic conversion from a villain to a hero. Sometimes it was more subtle. The dedication to the ways of the Kingdom of Jesus might confront someone like Corrie ten Boom with the decision to either put her head down and try to survive the Nazi occupation, or to try to be a force for good and put her life at risk to hide Jewish people from the Nazis. That decision resulted in her, her father, and sister being arrested and taken to a concentration camp.
But this could be even more subtle. Allowing the false self to die might mean taking time to pray and study, when you could be entertaining yourself by watching TV. Maybe no one but God will see that decision. … It might mean practicing fasting, so that you learn that your desires are not your master, and so you learn to be kind to others when you don’t get what you want. … It might mean donating money to an organization that is doing good in the world, recognizing this is actually God’s money, rather than spending it on yourself. … Our false self will suffer as we allow our pride to die so that we can show reverence to God. Our false self will suffer when we let go of the habit of looking down on someone in judgement and anger and bitterness, so that we can instead see them as a bearer of the image of God- Someone Christ was willing to die for. …
There is a kind of suffering that goes along with these decisions. It is the suffering of the false self- which is being put to death whenever we choose to trust God. The false self will draw us into serving ourselves through gaining power over others, through excessive bodily pleasure, and the amassing of wealth and showing it off. The false self will tell you that you deserve it, and that holiness is elitist, and that the way of Jesus isn’t realistic. The false self will tell you that it isn’t worth it, and it’s probably all fairy tales anyway. … But in the end, there is a greater joy in the Kingdom of Jesus. It is a joy we get glimmers of here in this life, but the fruit will not be fully enjoyed here. Like Abraham, we are being asked to trust God for a land we haven’t seen yet. We are being aske to trust that the ways of the Kingdom will produce virtues in us that we haven’t seen yet. But travelling to the place God wants to show us, means leaving places where Jesus is not welcomed as king. AMEN
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